No one can say with any reasonable certainty when the United
States of America began to fall apart. Many point to the presidential election
of 2016, but most believe the breakup started long before this. Now, in the
year 2110, the former United States is made up of 13 nation-states and The
Wastelands. Some of the nation-states have prospered under self-rule, while
others have declined. Some nation-states are very accepting of outsiders,
while others trust no one…sometimes not even their fellow citizens. There is
chaos in some places, and order in others…sometimes too much order.
The first state to break away from the USA was, not
unexpectedly, Texas, and from there, things continued to spiral out of control
as the national government tried to hold on to control that the state
governments wanted back, and eventually, the federal government was no longer
able to control the states, and the break-up came about.
Some of the nation-states kept the name “America” in their
new names. Some did this as a tribute to where they had come from, while
others did it to remind their citizens of what they were breaking away from.
Others adopted new names, or took on names that were given to them.
Borders in some areas are heavily patrolled, even walled in
places, while other borders have no protection at all…mostly it depends on the
views of the new government and its citizens, even though sometimes those two
groups still don’t agree. Let’s face it, greed and independence are bred into
the human race, and even allying with others that have similar viewpoints does
not necessarily mean that they will always get along.
If you’re interested in learning more, please click here to
see a map of the new nation-states and to read a little about each of them.
What we’re looking for: Stories must be at least 2,500
words…with no upper limit. Stories must be science fiction, in the sense that
they take place in the future, but depending on the nation-state that you’re
writing about, the science may or may not be as important. Obviously, we’ll be
focusing more on “soft” sf, but we certainly have room for “hard” sf.
How we will publish: This will not be an anthology
(at first). We will be publishing each story as an individual e-story, and
these stories will be distributed to all of the usual sales markets.
Pay: This will depend entirely on how the story
sells. We will be doing a 50/50 split with each author of the profits from the
story, with royalties being paid on our normal quarterly schedule. If this
project takes off, we will be doing a print anthology, or possibly many print
anthologies, and then there will be further payment at that point for reprint
rights.
Rights: We are looking for first rights on any
story. This probably makes sense, since this is a unique setting, and we doubt
that you have stories written about any of these nation-states lying around in
your desk.
Price of stories: The pricing of stories will depend
on their length. Stories from 2,500 words to 5,000 words will be priced at 99
cents. Stories that are 5,001 words to 10,000 words will be priced at $1.49,
and stories that are over 10,000 words will be priced at $1.99. Obviously the
longer the story, the higher the royalty, but we prefer quality over length.
Overall theme: We are not looking for an overall
theme to the stories. We want quality stories. If you write a story with a
conservative slant, or a story with a liberal slant, we don’t care. We just
want good stories. Some places are more likely to have liberal stories, while
others are more likely to have conservative stories, but that doesn’t mean you
have to write that way. You don’t even have to have a political agenda in your
story because we’re more interested in how people are surviving in these new
nation states.
Where to send your gems: Once you have your amazing
stories written, we ask that you send them to editor (at) nomadicdeliriumpress
(dot) com. Please include “Divided States” in the subject line.
Further questions: If you have any questions please
send them to the same address.